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Bear Bones Books

Media queries contact: Ron Suresha
POB 2278, New London, CT 06320
For release October 8, 2008

Lethe Press is pleased to announce that the first book-publishing imprint intended for readers in the gay and bisexual “Bear” community has been initiated and will produce its first title by year’s end.

Ron Jackson Suresha will serve as the acquisitions and developmental editor for the Bear Bones Books line. Suresha has been a member of the Bear community since its mid-1980s inception, and has written, published, and broadcasted extensively on emergent queer masculinities. Suresha stated, “I’m excited to be working with Lethe Press, which has published important gay books since 2001. Together we can now offer gay and bi Bears and other readers the best literature on the subject.”

The imprint will initially re-release editions of classic titles by stellar names in the Bear literary community, and eventually issue new works. The inaugural title by Bear Bones Books will be Lambda Literary Award-winning writer Jeff Mann’s collection of essays, *Edge: Travels of an Appalachian Leatherbear,* published in 2003 by the now-defunct Harrington Park Press. A revised edition of Suresha’s nonfiction book, *Bears on Bears: Interviews & Discussions*, originally published 2002 by Alyson Publications, acclaimed in the *Village Voice* as “required reading for anyone interested in gender studies,” is scheduled for release in Winter 2009. The imprint will also publish new works for the ursine adult male reader. The first front-list title will be an anthology of Bear-themed fiction, planned for release in Fall 2009.

A recent survey conducted by a national Bear-themed lifestyle magazine indicated more than 1.4 million Bear-identified men in the United States alone. Bear Bones Books looks forward to meeting the needs of Bears and others hungry for thoughtful, exciting writing about their unique homomasculine lifestyle.

The imprint and other Lethe Press titles are available through both brick-and-mortar and online booksellers. Further information may be found at the Website, www.BearBonesBooks.com.

Published by Ron Suresha

Ron Jackson Suresha is an editor, anthologist, and writer. He is considered an authority on emergent queer masculinities, in particular the subcultures of gay and bi male Bears and of male bisexuality. For Ron's service to the bear community, he was named "Bear of the Year" 2008. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Suresha attended the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, 1976-8), where he studied creative writing, and Vista College (Berkeley, Cal., 1989-92), where he studied American Sign Language. For more than two decades, he has worked as a freelance proofreader for trade book publishers such as Shambhala Publications. He was married in October 2004 to Rocco Russo. He is also a licensed Justice of the Peace in Connecticut, an ordained minister, ULC, and a member of the New London Green Party. Nonfiction works include Bears on Bears: Interviews & Discussions; Bi Men: Coming Out (coeditor, with Pete Chvany); Bisexual Perspectives on the Life and Work of Alfred C. Kinsey (editor). His latest book is The Uncommon Sense of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin: Stories, jests, and donkey tales of the beloved Persian folk hero, published by Lethe Press.